Bialik – Hollywood’s late bloomer
traditional immigrant Jewish family where roles for boys and girls were very different’’, she says.
‘‘I had an earlier bedtime than my brother and I wasn’t allowed to stay up and watch shows he was allowed to watch.‘‘
An interest in drama at school, however, saw her being cast, aged 12, as the young Bette Midler character in the 1989 film Beaches. The following year, she became a global sensation after she landed the title role in the hit teen TV series Blossom.
However, her adolescence wasn’t an altogether happy time.
‘‘I was teased a lot – for being short, flat-chested, having a big nose and pointy chin, and for having a stupid name, even. I went to a very academically rigorous school, too, so people weren’t impressed by my being on TV, either,’’ she says.
‘‘I actually don’t regret being a late bloomer at all,’’ she says. ‘‘Most people don’t feel as though they fit in, in some way, and it helped me develop a different sense of independence and inspired me to find ways to appreciate who I really was.’’
Bialik could easily have continued with her acting career after Blossom, but opted instead for a more unusual route – dropping out of acting for 12 years to continue her studies, earning a PhD in neuroscience at UCLA.
It was there that she met, and subsequently married, fellow student Michael Stone and, after having her two children, decided to put her career on hold to look after them. She returned to acting in 2010, with her role on The Big Bang Theory – a show about a group of nerdy scientists at Pasadena’s Caltech University – which has given Bialik a platform that she has taken up with relish. As well as penning books, two years ago she set up her own blogging website, GrokNation, where she uploads videos on anything from open relationships to celebrities disrobing in the name of empowerment.
Last month, she announced that she had been ordered by doctors not to talk for 30 days because of a sprain to her vocal cords. In typical kooky fashion, Bialik posted a silent video, with her sitting at a computer screen, typing and waving at the camera.
Hopefully, her voice will recover in time for the new season of The Big Bang Theory, though
The series, which attracts around 15 million viewers a week in the United States and is routinely one of the most-watched programmes on TVNZ2, returns for its 11th series in September. However, there will be at least two people who won’t be watching: her sons who, she admits, have never seen it.
‘‘I don’t have a TV,’’ she says, perhaps inevitably – before adding: ‘‘Maybe I’ll let them when they’re a bit older.’’ - Telegraph Group